The New Guy: Lucâs Stal-Madison

Meet Level 1’s Swedish style master

Lucâs Stal-Madison says he is influenced by the greats like Tanner Rainville, Adam Delorme, and Liam Downey. PHOTO: Darcy Bacha/Atomic

We caught up with Level 1’s new guy, Lucâs Stal-Madison, fresh off a shoot in Whistler, B.C. for L1’s newest ski film, Partly Cloudy. Living up to his title as Transition Winter Awards’ Railripper of the Year for 2012, Madison is able to execute with a style of his own.

As filmer, director, and owner of Level 1 Josh Berman, says, “He’s got a very unique interpretation of skiing that’s quite unlike what his contemporaries are doing. While he’s got the bag of tricks and the ability to follow the doubles/triples trends, he’s decidedly taking another approach.”

Though pairing his edits with retro looking shots and music, this new guy is anything but old fashioned. Madison possesses the keen trait of natural innovation and creativity. He’s the guy that makes you think you can do rails, because he’s so damn good at them, making them look easy.

POWDER: How did you react when you found out you won Level 1’s 2012 Super Unknown Contest? Lucâs Stal-Madison: Pretty much blown away. If surprised was a granola bar, I was like a double chocolate fudge brownie with small marshmallows in it, you know what I mean?

How was shooting for Level 1’s Sunny? For Sunny I only did the Breck shoot. It was the first time I got to meet and ski with the crew. I was real stoked. But the down days can be even more fun, just a big party.

Do you get special perks for being the “new guy” at a film or do they just haze you?No, it’s just family. Berman’s got a few “Superunknown” jokes up his sleeve though.

Who has influenced you in skiing?The greats like Tanner Rainville, Adam Delorme, Liam Downey. They just have it, style, or whatever you want to call it. You watch them and you’re like, uh yeah, there it is.

How would you describe your skiing style?That experimental new stuff.

Smooth jazz and smooth skiing. PHOTO: Darcy Bacha/Atomic

You have those smooth jazz beats in your edits, do you think your style pairs best with that baby-making music? Jazz was something I was really into last year. I didn’t know if it was going to be cool with skiing but I had visualized tricks so many times while grooving to Jazz so I just tried to edit with it. I just edit to the music I’m into at the time.

Where’s your favorite place to ski?Urban and backcountry, they’re more of an adventure. In the park you kind of know what you’ll find but for urban and backcountry it could be anything. I love it.

What do you look for in an urban shred spot? No specific things that I would look for, just ski anything that looks cool and fun. I’ve heard some crews know what tricks they want and then they look for the perfect spot to do it on, but that’s not how I like it.

Where do you want to ski that you haven’t been to before? Mount Baker, interior B.C., and Quebec would be rad. Those places just look extremely rad in every way.

The spotlight is on. PHOTO: Darcy Bacha/Atomic

Do you want to get more into heli-skiing? Maybe not heli skiing but more non-lift-accessible pow. After skiing in France with Parker White and Freedle Coty, I went from liking it to loving it.

What’s been your favorite moment in skiing so far? Meeting all kinds of awesome people and seeing all kinds of awesome places. Skiing isn’t so much about money and most don’t make any, and I think that is a big reason why there are so many rad people in this industry. Then when you get into the competition scene where people are actually making money, people are not as cool.

What do you have planned for the winter?Ski lots of urban, hopefully ski more pow, and travel to new cool places and hang with rad people.

What’s your favorite after riding food/drink? A PBR and a ripe avocado to dip those blue corn chips in.